Baker-Polito Administration Launches New Ads for Vaccine Public Awareness Campaign; Provides Weekly Dose Update

The Baker-Polito Administration announced new TV ads as part of its $5 million, multilingual “Trust the Facts, Get the Vax” public awareness campaign. The new ads remind people that the COVID-19 vaccine saves lives and urges them to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones.

In addition, the Administration announced today that three locations part of the Barnstable County regional collaborative are being added to the Commonwealth’s preregistration system.

The Administration also provided the weekly update for doses allocated to Massachusetts from the federal government.

New TV Ads: The new TV ads for the public awareness campaign are running in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language (ASL) and cite reasons for getting the vaccine and reminding remind people that the vaccine saves lives, and is the best way to help end the pandemic and protect you and your loved ones. According to recently-published CDC data, Massachusetts has extremely low rates of vaccine hesitancy, but the Administration recognizes that people in communities of color and the hardest-hit cities and towns may face additional barriers to vaccine acceptance and access.

The first round of ads from the public awareness campaign, launched in early February, feature a diverse group of doctors explaining the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Research indicates that medical experts continue to be the most trusted voices to share this message. These ads are running in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, ASL and soon in Portuguese. These additional ads feature frontline workers, families and other community members sharing their stories about why they got the vaccine. The ads underscore that the vaccine saves lives, and residents should get vaccinated to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.

The new round of TV ads began running this week and will continue through the spring and into the summer. The campaign also features additional animated ads with specific messages about vaccine safety and access in English, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL).

Watch the new ads:

• English (30 seconds)
• Spanish (30 seconds)

View all the ads in the “Trust the Facts. Get the Vax.” campaign.

These ads build on the Administration’s $30 million vaccine equity initiative which continues to devote resources like door-to-door canvassing to address vaccination barriers in the 20 hardest-hit communities.

Weekly Dose Update: This week, the Commonwealth received 348,220 first and second doses as part of the state allocation. These figures do not include doses provided directly from the federal government to the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) or Community Vaccination Center (CVC).

This week, first doses and second dose state allocations (total doses), were distributed among providers as follows:

• Health systems and health care providers (excluding community health centers): 122,040
• Regional Collaboratives and Local Boards of Health: 76,360
• Mass vaccination locations: 122,040
• Community Health Centers state allocation only: 21,180
• Retail pharmacies (non-CVS) state allocation only: 4,500
• Mobile Clinics supporting long-term care facilities, congregate care, affordable/low-income senior housing and homebound individuals: 1,900

Weekly allocations are subject to change based on federal availability, demand from providers, and obligations to meet second doses. Providers have 10 days to use their doses and must meet specific performance thresholds.

Federal Doses: In addition to the state allocation, the federal government has increased its distribution of vaccines to CVS Health sites as part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Partnership as well as to certain Massachusetts federally qualified community health centers. These quantities fluctuate on a weekly basis and are not counted as part of the state’s weekly allocation but represent an increasing allocation to selected locations.

• This week, 119,410 first and second doses were allocated to the retail pharmacy program.
• Federally Qualified Health Centers received 69,530 doses directly from the Federal Government.
• The mass vaccination site at the Hynes Convention Center run in partnership with FEMA was allocated 42,120 doses.